Late at Night…

We’ve had the a/c running for most of this summer, but the last few nights have brought some cooler temps and lower humidity levels, so I’ve been able to have the windows open.

Last night was a delight, I thought I was living in a jungle though!

With Pete already asleep next to me, I heard “the” (an?) owl nearby. A few weeks ago was the first time I’d heard an owl hooting here at night, and it was a HUGE thrill! I still love hearing it/them. So that was my first happy thing.

Next I heard the chattering of raccoons. Pete has captured (on his camera) (a) raccoon(s) eating at our bird-feeding station at night, but last night there were definitely two of them chattering back and forth as they raided the suet blocks that they love. Chuy even came out from under the covers and listened with me.

It was a while after the raccoons had apparently eaten their fill and wandered off that I heard the first howl. Before I could even consciously process it, I had chills up my spine. I tried to tell myself that these were a neighbor’s dogs, but I knew that it wasn’t dogs howling. It had to be coyotes, which I’ve only heard howl on videos until now. A neighbor told us that if we see lots of bunnies, we don’t have coyotes. Well, we DID see lots of bunnies earlier this summer; now we only see the occasional one now and then.

The backdrop to all of these critter convos was the river that runs next to us (and 22′ down a nearly vertical hill). It is a constant background sound that keeps me connected to this place, through everything else in life is the running of the water.

What peaceful and lovely sounds of nature as the last things I heard before falling asleep!

3 thoughts on “Late at Night…

  1. Don’t ever let your dogs run-off…likely you’d never see them again. BTW…WOLVES ‘howl’ as well!?!?!?
    I love listening to owls ‘hoot’.
    You definitely are enjoying your’spot’ amidst nature, and I’m very, VERY happy for you!

    1. I haven’t ever seen a wolf in the wild and not sure if there are any around here? But yes, they do howl too! I know the neighbors have mentioned coyotes, a pack of those would be formidable even for Maisie.
      We really love this spot. I still miss things about the other lot but not enough to go back even if we could which we can’t because someone else is there now. She moved within a few days of us leaving in fact :).
      I appreciate your friendship more than you know!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *